May 11, 2008
Many superlatives have been heaped upon Michael Jackson in his time, and this show demonstrates very clearly what an amazing creative force he has been in popular music. The wonderful songs he has written, the musical style he developed, and the way he completely raised the bar for dance and choreography, have all influenced pretty much anyone you care to name ever since.
I have never been to a tribute show before, and while I wasn’t looking for measured objectivity, I was a little bit disturbed by the adulatory tone of the proceedings, and the completely uncritical screaminess of the audience, which was entirely composed of fans. At one point, while doing The Man in the Mirror, they actually screened images of the boy Jackson alongside the weirdly reconstructed pallid adult –and still the audience cheered and screamed its approval!
The show was very professionally produced by people who clearly knew their business and were expert at manipulating said audience. The structure was roughly chronological, so we started with the late sixties and early seventies, a teeny tiny Mike-alike and the Jackson 5. This was very jolly. The boy who sang as the young Michael, Dominic Smith, looked and sang like an angel, and the dancers who mainly made up the rest of the Jacksons had that quality of amazing bounciness and energy, as if they could barely keep their feet on the ground. The costumes were wonderfully authentic, right down to the Very Bad Trousers with which everyone was afflicted in the early Seventies.
Once we progressed to the relatively grown-up Jackson, four splendid adult singers took over. They were not, of course, making any attempt to impersonate Michael, either visually or vocally, but belted out a variety of hits, each in their own style, with the assistance of a very good on-stage band, and quite outstandingly wonderful dancers. There was even audience participation, and it wasn’t long before the keener members were out of their seats and dancing in the aisles. There was a lengthy interval, providing many opportunities for fans to purchase tasteful Thriller Live merchandise, and then the second half commenced.
Here the production company adroitly adopted what we can now call the J. K. Rowling technique, namely risk pissing off your audience by giving them pain, so that the pay-off at the end is even sweeter. As the flashy screen at the back of the stage reminded us, Jackson has had more number one hits than, oo, anyone, and in the second half we got to sit through all of them, except the ones we wanted to hear, namely Billie Jean, Thriller, and Bad. Just when you were saying to yourself, "Surely they can’t call their show Thriller Live and then not do The Song?" they pretended to finish up and leave, then the screen flashed up Have We Missed Something? And the audience duly went wild.
For this splendid finale, we did have a Mike-alike, a superb singer and dancer called (I think) Rico Baird, who was able to reproduce all the trademark moon-walking and crotch-clutching, with equal grace and style. It was truly spectacular and made a broad smile appear on every face I could see. Lots of hand-waving, chanting, singing along (completely inaudible – the sound system was on good form), stomping and dancing on the spot for the audience. On stage the professional dancers out-danced everyone I have ever seen, showing some truly incredible moves. This was worth sitting through I Can’t Stop Loving You and seventeen other similar songs – absolutely superb.
I have never been to a tribute show before, and while I wasn’t looking for measured objectivity, I was a little bit disturbed by the adulatory tone of the proceedings, and the completely uncritical screaminess of the audience, which was entirely composed of fans. At one point, while doing The Man in the Mirror, they actually screened images of the boy Jackson alongside the weirdly reconstructed pallid adult –and still the audience cheered and screamed its approval!
The show was very professionally produced by people who clearly knew their business and were expert at manipulating said audience. The structure was roughly chronological, so we started with the late sixties and early seventies, a teeny tiny Mike-alike and the Jackson 5. This was very jolly. The boy who sang as the young Michael, Dominic Smith, looked and sang like an angel, and the dancers who mainly made up the rest of the Jacksons had that quality of amazing bounciness and energy, as if they could barely keep their feet on the ground. The costumes were wonderfully authentic, right down to the Very Bad Trousers with which everyone was afflicted in the early Seventies.
Once we progressed to the relatively grown-up Jackson, four splendid adult singers took over. They were not, of course, making any attempt to impersonate Michael, either visually or vocally, but belted out a variety of hits, each in their own style, with the assistance of a very good on-stage band, and quite outstandingly wonderful dancers. There was even audience participation, and it wasn’t long before the keener members were out of their seats and dancing in the aisles. There was a lengthy interval, providing many opportunities for fans to purchase tasteful Thriller Live merchandise, and then the second half commenced.
Here the production company adroitly adopted what we can now call the J. K. Rowling technique, namely risk pissing off your audience by giving them pain, so that the pay-off at the end is even sweeter. As the flashy screen at the back of the stage reminded us, Jackson has had more number one hits than, oo, anyone, and in the second half we got to sit through all of them, except the ones we wanted to hear, namely Billie Jean, Thriller, and Bad. Just when you were saying to yourself, "Surely they can’t call their show Thriller Live and then not do The Song?" they pretended to finish up and leave, then the screen flashed up Have We Missed Something? And the audience duly went wild.
For this splendid finale, we did have a Mike-alike, a superb singer and dancer called (I think) Rico Baird, who was able to reproduce all the trademark moon-walking and crotch-clutching, with equal grace and style. It was truly spectacular and made a broad smile appear on every face I could see. Lots of hand-waving, chanting, singing along (completely inaudible – the sound system was on good form), stomping and dancing on the spot for the audience. On stage the professional dancers out-danced everyone I have ever seen, showing some truly incredible moves. This was worth sitting through I Can’t Stop Loving You and seventeen other similar songs – absolutely superb.